Neural Network Implementation without Multiplication

The subject of this thesis is neural network acceleration with the goal of reducing the number of floating point multiplications. The theoretical part of the thesis surveys current trends and methods used in the field of neural network acceleration. However, the focus is on the binarization techniques which allow replacing multiplications with logical operators. The theoretical base is put into practice in two ways. First is the GPU implementation of crucial binary operators in the Tensorflow framework with a performance benchmark. Second is an application of these operators in simple image classifier. Results are certainly encouraging. Implemented operators achieve speed-up by a factor of 2.5 when compared to highly optimized cuBLAS operators. The last chapter compares accuracies achieved by binarized models and their full-precision counterparts on various architectures